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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27446518">to hold a rose by its thorns.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefauxlucifer/pseuds/Lefauxlucifer'>Lefauxlucifer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bloodplay, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Knifeplay, aged up chars ofc, rated E for EMOTIONS, there's a plot (you just have to squint), vampire!chisato, victorian-esque au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:53:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,625</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27446518</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefauxlucifer/pseuds/Lefauxlucifer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>“Kokoro,” she grimaces. “Of course. Who else could it be?”</p>
  <p>Kaoru reluctantly nods, and though Chisato can't trust the King at his word, the princess is young and wise beyond her years, generous enough to concede that violence for violence is the rule of beasts. Tsurumaki Kokoro's meddling might often get in the way of her own, but at least she favors peace.</p>
  <p>Then it’s perfectly plausible, that she was brought word of the bloodbath in the ashen woods only after the fact, that she would have let Kaoru slip out under cover of darkness if it meant she could impede a formal declaration of war.<br/></p>
</blockquote>or: Shirasagi Chisato receives a visitor to her castle at the stroke of midnight, and against her better judgement, doesn't turn her away.
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Seta Kaoru/Shirasagi Chisato</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>to hold a rose by its thorns.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>And it's Kaoru's own fault that Chisato is pressing the edge of a knife to the base of her neck, light as a feather, that she has her back firmly up against the cupboards of her kitchen and hands where she can see them.</p><p> </p><p>But in fairness, Chisato has wanted this, wanted <em>her</em>.</p><p> </p><p>No, after a brushfire of a day in a trainwreck of a week, the gods only know what would happen if she were to deny herself now.</p><p> </p><p>But first things first.</p><p> </p><p>“Why come to me?” she asks, every bit as calm and composed as the general populace expects her to be when she whisks the knife away but keeps it close, a gentle nudge in the right direction.</p><p> </p><p>Because while she does expect that Kaoru would pay her a visit every now and then, out of no more than the goodness of her own heart, she wouldn't seek her out alone, not with things as volatile as they are now. The ruling class prefers having this girl under their thumb and must surely have need of her in the capital, to look over the fields, survey the markets.</p><p> </p><p>Kaoru glances away, then back to her, and that look? That look of obvious distress?</p><p> </p><p>That, by itself, tells her everything she needs to know.</p><p> </p><p>For there are those in this world who would wear their masks as well as the two of them, people who even Shirasagi Chisato, in all her grace, cannot pretend to stand.</p><p> </p><p>“Kokoro,” she grimaces. “Of course. Who else could it be?”</p><p> </p><p>Kaoru reluctantly nods, and though Chisato can't trust the King's decree, the princess is young and wise beyond her years,  generous enough to concede that violence for violence is the rule of beasts. Tsurumaki Kokoro's meddling might often get in the way of her own, but at least she favors peace.</p><p> </p><p>Then it’s perfectly plausible, that she was brought word of the bloodbath in the ashen woods only after the fact, that she would have let Kaoru slip out under cover of darkness if it meant she could impede a formal declaration of war.</p><p> </p><p>After all, who else would offer themselves so easily, so soon and to a capricious figure who, by all sensible measures, is not to be trusted?</p><p> </p><p>“And you've adequately prepared?” she issues a warning with the pretext of a question, both out of necessity and goodwill. This isn't their first time, and Chisato has the feeling it won't be the last.</p><p> </p><p>“For you, my love, the world,” Kaoru answers her simple request, as if what they've built under the guise of an idyllic tryst is normal, or even healthy.</p><p> </p><p>Granted, their… relationship may already be built on a complex web of lies and mistrust, layered with deception, but Kaoru has always appeared before her at the worst times, so kind and agreeable that she hardly thinks twice of disclosing her eccentric tastes, of placing such compromising information in the hands of a girl who can do anything <em>but </em>keep a secret.</p><p> </p><p>And Chisato could accept it, if it was simply that much, just the sex, and doubly so if it was with anyone else, anyone at all.</p><p> </p><p>But it had to be Kaoru, didn't it?</p><p> </p><p>They were doomed from the start, with chance outings that led to evenings spent in each other's company. With a more rigorous and routine courtship than the best of lovers could enjoy, Chisato has to wonder if they were ever fooling anyone, much less themselves.</p><p> </p><p>But Chisato has never needed to toy with her as she does now, and Kaoru? She has half a mind to think that girl wants this twice as much.</p><p> </p><p>It only sounds so sinister because despite her best efforts, Chisato is still the last in a long line of vampires, and their effective queen. Kaoru's overwhelming humanity certainly...complicates things.</p><p> </p><p>Especially when the Kingdom is irredeemably irreverent and employs her as an olive branch, and it doesn’t help that Kaoru lends the thought credence, having accepted her role as the outlet for Chisato’s latent frustrations.</p><p> </p><p>Though she's no better than they are, no, but at least she doesn't pretend she is, not while she pockets the knife and goes in for a kiss.</p><p> </p><p>And at first, it's soft, even <em>gentle</em>. It's not until Kaoru starts kissing her back like she's waited a year and a day for this that Chisato is compelled to turn it into a show of force. Her tongue runs along Kaoru's bottom lip and she bites, on pure instinct, she <em>bites</em>, and gasps as everything starts to<em> swirl</em> and churn, as she breathes in the familiar scent of copper, <em>tastes</em> it on the tip of her tongue along with the oldest of magick.</p><p> </p><p>It's a sharp and bitter truth.</p><p> </p><p>That every time she shows this vulgar side of herself to the one closest to her heart, she feels freer. That when Kaoru yields an inch, Chisato takes a mile, and that with each indulgence, she moves one step closer to losing what little humanity she has left.</p><p> </p><p>And it would more than suffice, if all she did was fulfill the base duties of her ilk, act as livestock would and leave her feelings out of it, Chisato thinks, like the hypocrite she is.</p><p> </p><p>Because last she checked, her Kao-chan was scared senseless on all counts, a far cry from what she is now, so <em>eager</em> and <em>willing</em>. Like Kaoru wants the pain as badly as Chisato wants to give it to her.</p><p> </p><p>And she looks at her like she <em>aches</em>, as if Kaoru still fails to understand that the two of them are the front and back face of the same coin, and that she has far, far more to fear from Chisato than fear itself.</p><p> </p><p>“We're using the upstairs bedroom,” she tells the other, “for reasons best left unsaid.”</p><p> </p><p>Because she's aware, of how vividly poetic it would be to throw Seta Kaoru on her dining table and make a four-course meal out of her then and there.</p><p> </p><p>And if not for the illicit activities of her cohabitant, she would.</p><p> </p><p>For this is her personal stronghold, Castle Shirasagi, as it were. Hikawa Hina may be the devil made flesh, but that doesn't excuse her sullying Chisato's living room as she has.</p><p> </p><p>Simply put, she has an axe to grind, and she doesn’t quite care if an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. She'll kill two birds with one whetstone as she moves like lightning, takes her by the wrist and follows the winding staircase up to the bedroom, zipping in before Kaoru can get a word in edgewise.</p><p> </p><p>And just like that, Chisato is riddled with the compounded guilt of the nights they've spent together like this, using her beloved in a way that insinuates the ends justify the means.</p><p> </p><p>Yet, Kaoru behaves herself, exercises such extraordinary restraint as she refrains from referencing her lord and savior, like she grasps, through some miracle of the gods, that nothing kills the mood faster than an impromptu monologue.</p><p> </p><p>Because she would rather be feared than loved, but Kaoru looks at her like she could just as easily do both, and Chisato can feel the frantic, sinful desire that pools in the pit of her stomach.</p><p> </p><p>And act upon it, she will.</p><p> </p><p>Though Chisato is no stranger to love or loss, though she can't shake the gravity of the situation they're in, she wouldn't trade these moments with Kaoru for anything, even something as grand as the world.</p><p> </p><p>And she's never quite been successful in her attempts to brush it off, the philistine urge to have this girl all for herself.</p><p> </p><p>"You're hopeless, by the way. You reek of other women," Chisato remarks, pushing her callously onto the bed.</p><p> </p><p>"They came to me first. But I...I didn't <em>do </em>anything with them, Chi-chan. My loyalties lie firmly with you...my queen," Kaoru answers her, and that's that, isn't it?</p><p> </p><p>The final nail in Chisato's coffin.</p><p> </p><p>Because the seductive voices in her head have reason by the throat, and not long after, they rip it to shreds, as she would to Kaoru's shirt, but Chisato has too much respect for a well-tailored suit to reduce it to dust, instead meticulously undoing each button until it can be comfortably pried off.</p><p> </p><p>Her slacks follow suit, and what she's left with is absolutely stunning—Kaoru is absolutely stunning, especially in this lacy black number that Chisato went out of her way to procure, so unbearably attractive that she wouldn't mind ending up among the damned.</p><p> </p><p>So she’s impatient. She lines the tip of her knife at Kaoru's waist, and when she drags the flat edge up until it rests between her modest chest, it must feel like an eternity for them both, When she’s done, Kaoru is practically shivering, the warmth of her skin juxtaposed with the crisp chill of steel.</p><p> </p><p>“The usual,” Chisato issues her imperative, and Kaoru sits upright at the edge of the bed, twiddles her thumbs and faces away from her. She's tense, Chisato can tell, more nervous than she cares to let on.</p><p> </p><p>And Chisato is forced to admit that Kaoru is only so <em>good</em> to her because of their shared history, not in spite of it, forced to acknowledge the true nature of their relationship as that of a brutal codependency where the thin lines separating pleasure and pain blur and congeal.</p><p> </p><p>Chisato goes from her shoulders to her lower back, and her blade <em>nicks</em> once or twice, a rare lapse in control, but in response, Kaoru gasps and <em>whines</em>, and leaves her bristling with anticipation.</p><p> </p><p>“You're awfully quiet tonight, aren't you, Kao-chan?” she murmurs, composed as she leaves trails of seething red in her wake (this time, not by accident).</p><p> </p><p>“Then...how would you like me?” her partner queries between yelps, and it's a thrill in and of itself, watching her <em>squirm</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“Screaming my name,” Chisato gets straight to the point with a violent intensity and wonders if it stings when she runs her fingers over her handiwork.</p><p> </p><p>And it's only when Kaoru's breath catches in her throat with palpable<em> need</em> that she stops, because this girl’s blood is to die for, and on several occasions, she almost has.</p><p> </p><p>So she sheathes the knife and sets it beside the clothes she’ll need to get Kaoru back into when she’s through with her. She licks her fingers clean and then runs her tongue along each cut, savoring the tang of iron and the smack of salt.</p><p> </p><p>“I ...don't mind if you leave a mark," Kaoru tells her, bloody hell, she sounds so breathless, so <em>indigent</em>, and what in god’s name is Chisato supposed to do now, <em>refuse</em>?</p><p> </p><p>So she flips this girl over, knocks her back onto the bed so hard that they unintentionally prove the conservation of momentum as they recoil.</p><p> </p><p>And then, then she peppers the line of Kaoru's jaw with kisses that bruise, sinks her fangs into the crook of her neck without preamble and shudders when she drowns in an ecstasy nothing short of exhilarating. Her pupils dilate to the size of pinpricks and she forces her knee between Kaoru's thighs, presses into her languidly, and oh, that makes all the difference, because the second she does, Kaoru is grinding up into her and her voice gets caught in her throat, like Chisato doesn't <em>already </em>want to devour her whole.</p><p> </p><p>She draws back messily, having had her fill for the night, and then she shifts, maps the subtle curve of Kaoru's upper body with one hand, holds her steady with the other, until her fingertips brush against thin silk and find their way underneath.</p><p> </p><p>Kaoru lets out a plaintive little whimper when she does, Chisato is fraught to cut to the chase.</p><p> </p><p>But only through cruelty is Shirasagi Chisato ever kind.</p><p> </p><p>She assesses the slickness around Kaoru's entrance, drives two fingers into her until she's knuckle deep, watches as her eyes fog with lust, as her hips roll higher, harder, chasing a high that Chisato continues to keep just barely out of reach. Her toes curl and her eyelids flutter and she pleads, her voice going up half an octave and hitching as she curses — <em>fuck, chi-chan, <strong>please</strong></em><strong>.</strong></p><p> </p><p>So she adds a dash of light pressure to her clit, because she knows this girl can handle it, knows she’d at least want to try, and it's such a pretty sight, that of her darling Kao-chan, all tensed up and trembling as she hovers <em>helplessly</em> over the edge.</p><p> </p><p>And she doesn’t stand a chance when Chisato curls her fingers and then settles on a devastating pace, comes close and whispers one sweet nothing after another, lets her hang on every syllable as if she spoke the word of God.</p><p> </p><p>When the dust settles, she even lets Kaoru catch her breath and ride out the aftershocks, too focused on admiring the fruits of her labor to be anything but charitable.</p><p> </p><p>Because it's a daydream, a wonderous daydream, and one that takes roughly all of 75 seconds to oust itself as a nightmarish reality.</p><p> </p><p>“Ah, I do sincerely apologize, my fair Chisato. It appears my spellcasting is not quite at its peak, this unruly time of night.”</p><p> </p><p>Those are the words she hears as her life flashes and warps before her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>One by one, the pieces fall into place. Every path she took. The circuits. Of course. Even in her excitement, how could she forget? Severing half of those precious links would leave the overall network in shambles, just barely operable—if at all.</p><p> </p><p>And at her humble level, casting healing magick of the sixth tier would take, at minimum… an hour.</p><p> </p><p><em>Fuck</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“So this is it, the bitter, fleeting end…” Kaoru reflects as her voice grows weaker, a hint of regret in those glimmering eyes. “But, if I may bequeath what little consolation I can, I…I truly could not have found a better Juliet, to my Romeo.”</p><p> </p><p>Without a second thought, Chisato reaches for the knife and rips it from its sheath, striking against the veins of her wrist and opening them up in a single clean cut.</p><p> </p><p>“Drink,” she forces herself back onto Kaoru and holds her arm out, willing to briefly recognize her unsavory heritage if it means righting her wrongs.</p><p> </p><p>"It didn't turn you back then. I doubt it'd turn you now," Chisato reminds her, and Kaoru relaxes when she does, resigns herself to this ironic twist of fate.</p><p> </p><p>And heavens, does it smart, like that blacksmith put a hint of silver in the blade just to spite her with this raw, searing torment but at the moment, she's too busy filling in for Caduceus to really care. She keeps at it until the last of Kaoru's wounds have closed up, and only then does she realize just how long she's been holding her breath.</p><p> </p><p>“Stay the night,” she carefully posits once Kaoru has regained her faculties (though anyone in their right mind wouldn’t think it a request).</p><p> </p><p>“And I don't care what they brainwashed you with back home, or what that asinine prophecy might imply. We've come too far now, to let our lives end in tragedy,” she adds, the lilt in her voice suggesting that it’s in Kaoru’s best interest to wholeheartedly comply.</p><p> </p><p>Because while this girl might display remarkable nonchalance towards her own demise, she's a genius of a vampire hunter and the strongest mage in a millennium, and what's more is that she happens to be Chisato's dearest friend and companion, living, breathing proof that the monsters out there are nothing compared to the darkness that hungers within them both.</p><p> </p><p>For it is not in the stars to hold their destiny, but in themselves.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>heavily inspired by:</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>What, you egg?</p>
  <p class="tab">
    <i>[He stabs him.]</i>
  </p>
</blockquote>my singular braincell aside, writing this was too much fun, and even if it might be a bit rough around the edges, i hope it was a rush to read.<p>and if you'd like to come take a stab at me, i'll always be questioning my life choices on <a href="https://twitter.com/LeFauxLucifer">twitter</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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